9/11 At 11: Patriot’s Day

It’s hard to believe it has been 11 years since that fateful day when Islamic terrorists killed 2,996 of our friends, loved ones, and countrymen, as well as visitors welcomed to our shores. And they picked on the wrong country, as we took the fight right back at them.

Today has been designated Patriot’s Day, a day of reflection, when we are to fly the flag at half staff, and observe a moment of silence at 8:46am eastern time, the moment when the first plane struck. The editorial staff at the Hickory Daily Record discusses Patriot’s Day

Today is Patriot Day. We observe it in remembrance of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Patriotism is not a right, nor is it a privilege. Patriotism comes from individuals. It is a love of independence and liberty. It is a love of country — a love so deep that the patriot stands ready to remedy the ills of the country and even change the government if necessary.

There is no nation without the people. In the United States, there is no government without the consent and direction of the people. Americans are not third-party participants in government. They are the beginning and the end of the national will. They are the expression of unity and the embodiment of liberty.

By definition — written in blood and engraved on our individual and collective heart — there can be no United States of America without the people and their patriotism.

The Sept. 11 attacks still elicit sadness, anxiety and anger for many. But as we enter the 11th year after that tragic day, it begs the question:

How will the nation mark the occasion as the horrors of that day – as well as the victims and heroes – fade from our collective memories?

In decades to come, will 9/11 anniversaries remain a moment frozen in the nation’s consciousness? Or will they be more like time-softened remembrances of other iconic tragedies in U.S. history: Pearl Harbor (Dec. 7, 1941), President John F. Kennedy‘s assassination (Nov. 22, 1963) and the space shuttle Challenger explosion (Jan. 28, 1986)?

Nearly 70% of Americans say they somewhat or strongly agree with this statement: “I have moved on from (the events of) Sept. 11,” according to a new American Pulse Survey.

And how does the NY Times, the supposed paper of record, celebrate? By pulling out the Blame Bush card. Joshua Pundit tears the op-ed apart

I ordinarily wouldn’t even take notice of something like this appearing in Pravda-on-the-Hudson, especially given their record of endangering our troops and our country by leaking classified information. But these shameless,brazen lies demand a response.

This is an op-ed entitled ‘The Deafness Before the Storm’, and its premise is fairly simple – that the Bush White House was deaf to 9/11 warnings and thus allowed it to happen.

The writer is one Kurt Eichenwald, and he has top grade, cutting edge knowledge and experience with national security , since his credentials include being an ex-New York Times reporter and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Oh wait, maybe he doesn’t.

The problem with all the warnings was that there was no actionable intelligence. I’ve asked this many times, and always get interesting answers from liberals: what was Bush supposed to have done?

Warn the airlines? They were

Warn the airports? They were

Put soldiers in the airports? He could have asked the Governors to put the National Guard in them, since it is illegal to deploy active duty troops inside the US (Posse Comitatus).

For how long? Does anyone actually think that elected Democrats, liberals, and the ACLU would allow this without accusing Bush of being a dictator and all the other insane stuff they accused him of being?

The only rational thing to do would have been to profile Middle Eastern looking Muslim men. They were the ones who would be attacking. Thing Democrats, Liberals, the ACLU, and CAIR would have stood for that?

There was no idea as to when the attacks would happen, where they would happen (obviously, NYC and D.C. would be big targets, but would they have been the targets?), what airlines, what airplanes. There were no answers to the questions “when, where, what, and whom.” Thankfully, the Clinton administration instituted the “wall between intelligence and law enforcement”, so there was no sharing. We know that there were these same warnings going back several years, so, what seemed imminent wasn’t quite so.

But, for today, forget the insane people on the left, half of which are believers in the conspiracy that Bush made 9/11 happen or didn’t stop it. These are people known as “Truthers.” Just remember what it felt like that day, and that there are people out there who do want to destroy the American way of life.